For those of us fortunate enough to be graced by the presence of the Rev. Al Sharpton this past Sunday, albeit over an hour late, we were treated to an all around Bush-bashing, conservative-trashing spirited discourse.
While this was a campaign stop for Sharpton, and his objective was to rally the audience, which he definitely succeeded in doing (evident from the numerous applause lines and standing ovations), one didn't have to listen more than five minutes to identify a whole column's worth of erroneous declarations. Here's only three of the many misrepresented statements.
He started off with his typical "Bush was selected, not elected" mantra. Is he the only one stuck in a time warp? Can we please move on? He accused Bush and Republicans of sparking a "non-military civil war" with the Florida recount, the redistricting in Texas and the recent California recall. He couldn't be further from the truth. If my memory serves me correctly, Al Gore was the one who kept insisting on the recounts, even after several Democratic counties ruled out the possibility due to the logistics of recounting many votes by hand (ex. Miami Dade County). When the ballots were recounted by independent newspapers, the results still put Bush over the top.
With the issue of redistricting in Texas, if anyone was obstructing the public servants from serving the public, it was the Democrats. Gerrymandering, the redrawing of district election maps to favor a certain political party, is done by both parties, whichever one is in power at the time. Currently, the Republicans are in control in the Texas state legislature. Democrats in both the Texas State Senate and House decided to "solve" the dispute by not showing up for work. Senate Democrats retreated to New Mexico for approximately 45 days, preventing the Senate from convening due to the absence of a quorum, and resulting in a cost of about $2 million to the state.
The recall in California was actually a demonstration of the expression of political freedom by the voters in California, a far cry from a "civil war." The concept of a recall was added to California law in 1911 as part of a movement to reform the government in hopes to better represent individual interests.
Sharpton progressed to the next predictable topic: Iraq. He stated, "We were not in imminent danger; there were no weapons of mass destruction. I didn't go to U.Va., but I do know what imminent means. Imminent means immediate, present, right now." He's correct about the definition of the word imminent, but is incorrect about Bush's assertion.
Bush did not say that Iraq was an imminent threat. As a matter of fact, in his 2003 State of the Union address, he clearly stated the opposite. "Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent
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